___ History of Mexico

Early Settlement and Pre-Columbian Civilizations
Nomadic paleo-Indian societies are widely believed to have migrated from North America into Mexico as early as 20,000 B.C.
Permanent settlements based on intensive farming of native plants such as corn, squash, and
beans were established by 1,500 B.C. Between 200 B.C. and A.D. 900, several advanced
indigenous societies emerged. During this “Classic Period,” urban centers were built at
Teotihuacán (in central Mexico), Monte Albán (in the territory now making up the state of
Oaxaca), and in the Mayan complexes (in the modern-day states of Chiapas, Tabasco,
Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo, as well as at sites in the modern-day countries of
Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize). These advanced societies developed written languages,
displayed high levels of occupational specialization and social stratification, and produced
elaborate art, architecture, and public works. After the unexplained collapse of the Teotihuacán
society around A.D. 650, the early civilizations of central Mexico were eclipsed by the Mayan
city-states of the Yucatan Peninsula. The lowland Mayan communities flourished from A.D. 600
to A.D. 900, when they, too, abruptly declined. The Post-Classic period (from about 900 to
1500) was characterized by widespread migration throughout Mesoamerica and the re­
emergence of the central valley of Mexico as the site of large-scale urban settlement and political
power. By the 1300s, the Aztecs had established themselves on the site of present-day Mexico
City. The militaristic and bureaucratic Aztec state ruled a far-flung tributary empire spanning
much of Central Mexico.

Spanish Conquest, Colonization, and Christianization
During the early sixteenth century,
Spanish military adventurers based in Cuba organized expeditions to the North American
mainland. The first major military expedition to Mexico, led by Hernán Cortés, landed near
present-day Veracruz in 1519 and advanced inland toward the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán
hoping to conquer central Mexico. By 1521 Spanish forces under Cortés, reinforced by
rebellious Indian tribes, had overthrown the Aztec empire and executed the last Aztec king,
Cuauhtémoc. The Spanish subsequently grafted their administrative and religious institutions
onto the remnants of the Aztec empire. During the early years of colonial rule, the conquistadors
and their descendants vied for royal land titles (encomiendas) and Indian labor allotments
(repartimientos). The early colonial economic system was based largely on the ability of the
encomienda holders (encomenderos) to divert Indian labor from agriculture to the mining of
precious metals for export to Spain. The encomienda became the basis for a semi-autonomous
feudal society that was only loosely accountable to the central authorities in Madrid.

New Spain and the Mercantile Economy
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
Mexico experienced far-reaching demographic, cultural, and political change. New Spanish-style
cities and towns were founded throughout central Mexico, serving as commercial,
administrative, and religious centers that attracted an increasingly Hispanicized and
Christianized mestizo population from the countryside. Mexico City, built on the ruins of
Tenochtitlán, became the capital of Spain’s North American empire. Colonial society was
stratified by race and wealth into three main groups: whites (European- and American-born),
castas (mestizos), and native peoples; each had specific rights or privileges (fueros) and
obligations in colonial society. New Spain was ruled by a viceroy appointed by the Spanish
crown but in practice enjoyed a large degree of autonomy from Madrid.

Throughout the colonial period, Mexico’s economic relationship with Spain was based on the
philosophy of mercantilism. Mexico was required to supply raw materials to Spain, which would
then produce finished goods to be sold at a profit to the colonies. Trade duties that placed
stringent restrictions on the colonial economies protected manufacturers and merchants in Spain
from outside competition in the colonies. In the mid-eighteenth century, the third Bourbon king
of Spain, Charles III, reorganized the political structure of Spain’s overseas empire in an effort to
bolster central authority, reinvigorate the mercantile economy, and increase tax revenues. New
Spain was divided into 12 military departments (intendencias) under a single commandant
general in Mexico City who was independent of the viceroy and reported directly to the king.

War of Independence
The spread of late eighteenth-century Enlightenment philosophy, together with the egalitarian example of the American and French revolutions, motivated
Mexican-born whites (criollos) to seek greater autonomy and social status within the colonial
system. Discrimination against criollos in the granting of high offices had long been a source of
contention between Spain and Mexico City. In 1808 the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by
Napoleon Bonaparte and the forced abdication of the Spanish king, Charles IV, disrupted Spain’s
faltering authority over Mexico. Rejecting the puppet regime installed by France, the incumbent
viceroy allied himself with the criollos and declared an independent junta ostensibly loyal to
Charles IV. Allies of the Napoleonic regime responded by staging a coup and installing a new
viceroy, an action that set the stage for war between criollos and Spanish loyalists.

On September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a criollo parish priest, issued the Grito de
Dolores (Cry of Dolores), a call to arms against Spanish rule that mobilized the Indian and
mestizo populations and launched the Mexican war of independence. After a brief siege of
Mexico City by insurgents in 1814, Spanish forces waged a successful counteroffensive that had
nearly annihilated the rebels by 1820. However, the tide turned in favor of the criollos in
February 1821, when a loyalist officer, Augustín de Iturbide, spurned the newly established
constitutional monarchy in Spain and defected with his army to the rebels. Under the
conservative Plan of Iguala, the rebel army agreed to respect the rights of Spanish-born whites
(peninsulares) and to preserve the traditional privileges (fueros) and land titles of the Roman
Catholic Church. The Spanish, now outmaneuvered politically as well as militarily, lost the will
to continue the war and recognized Mexican independence in September 1821.

Empire and Early Republic
Upon the withdrawal of Spain, Iturbide declared himself emperor
of Mexico and Central America. Within months, however, his imperial regime was bankrupt and
had lost the support of the criollo elite. In February 1823, Iturbide was overthrown by republican
forces led by General Antonio López de Santa Anna. The Mexican empire was dissolved when
the United Provinces of Central America declared their independence in July 1823.

Clashes between the conservative and liberal parties dominated politics during the early republic.
Conservatives, who advocated a centralized republic governed from Mexico City and the
maintenance of clerical and military fueros, had the support of the Roman Catholic Church and
much of the army. Liberals, on the other hand, advocated federalism, secularism, and the
elimination of fueros. Under the federal republic in effect from 1824 to 1836, Mexico was ruled
by a series of weak and perennially bankrupt liberal governments. General Santa Anna and his
allies fashioned a centralized republic that held power from 1836 to 1855. Although nominally a
liberal, Santa Anna was primarily a nationalist who dominated Mexico’s politics for two
decades. Santa Anna’s efforts to assert Mexican government authority over Anglo-American
settlements in Texas spurred that region’s secession from Mexico in 1835. Excesses committed
by a punitive Mexican expedition against Texan garrisons at the Alamo and Goliad provoked
strong anti-Mexican sentiment in the United States and galvanized U.S. public support for Texan
independence. In April 1836, Texan forces defeated and captured Santa Anna at San Jacinto.
During a brief captivity, the Mexican general signed a treaty recognizing Texan independence
from Mexico.

Mexican-American War, Civil War, and French Intervention
A dispute with the United States over the boundaries of Texas led to war between the United States and Mexico in April
1846. Two U.S. Army columns advancing southward from Texas quickly captured northern
Mexico, California, and New Mexico, repelling Santa Anna’s forces at Buena Vista. An
amphibious expeditionary force led by General Winfield Scott captured the Gulf Coast city of
Veracruz after a brief siege and naval blockade. Scott’s forces subdued Mexico City in
September 1847, following a series of pitched battles along the route inland to the Mexican
capital and its surrounding bastions. In the ensuing Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, U.S.
withdrawal was contingent on Mexico’s ceding of the territories of New Mexico and Upper
California (the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, New
Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming) and its acceptance of the incorporation of Texas into the
United States.

In 1855 Santa Anna was ousted and forced into exile by a revolt of liberal army officers. A
liberal government under President Ignacio Comonfort oversaw a constitutional convention that
drafted the progressive constitution of 1857. The new constitution contained a bill of rights that
included habeas corpus protection and religious freedom and mandated the secularization of
education and the confiscation of Catholic Church lands. It was strongly opposed by
conservatives and church officials who objected to its anticlerical provisions. Seeking to avoid
armed conflict, President Comonfort delayed its promulgation and instead decreed his own
moderate reform agenda known as the Three Laws. However, in January 1858, after
unsuccessful efforts by Comonfort to craft a political compromise, the factions took up arms, and
the government was forced from office. A three-year civil war between conservative and liberal
armies, known as the War of the Reform, engulfed the country. After initial setbacks, the
liberals, led by the prominent Zapotec Indian politician and former vice president Benito Juárez,
gained the upper hand. In January 1861, the liberals regained control of Mexico City and elected
Juárez president.

In January 1862, the navies of Spain, Britain, and France jointly occupied the Mexican Gulf
coast in an attempt to compel the repayment of public debts. Britain and Spain quickly withdrew,
but the French remained and, in May 1863, occupied Mexico City. Drawing on the support of the
Mexican conservatives, Napoleon III installed Austrian prince Ferdinand Maximilian von
Habsburg as Mexican Emperor Maximilian I. By February 1867, a growing liberal insurgency
under Juárez and the threat of war with Prussia had compelled France’s withdrawal from
Mexico. Maximilian was captured and executed by Juárez’s forces shortly thereafter. Juárez was
restored to the presidency and remained in office until his death in 1872.

Porfirio Díaz Era
From 1876 until 1910, governments controlled by the liberal caudillo
Porfirio Díaz pursued economic modernization while maintaining authoritarian political control.
In contrast to his liberal predecessors, Díaz established cordial relations with the Catholic
Church, an institution he considered central to Mexican national identity. The Díaz years, known
as the “Porfiriato” saw heavy state investment in urban public works, railroads, and ports—all of
which contributed to sustained, export-led economic growth. The Porfiriato governments
encouraged foreign investment in export agriculture and the concentration of arable land in the
form of haciendas. Although the urban middle class experienced substantial improvements in
quality of life, Mexico’s peasant majority found its livelihood threatened by the loss of
communal lands to the haciendas. In response to growing unrest in the countryside, Díaz created
the Rural Guard, a paramilitary force that became notorious for its repressive tactics.

Mexican Revolution and Aftermath
By the turn of the century, opposition to Díaz had spread
among dissident liberals who sought a return to the principles of the constitution of 1857.
Following Díaz’s fraudulent re-election in 1910, several isolated rural revolts coalesced into a
nationwide insurrection. Unable to regain control of several rebellious state capitals, Díaz
resigned the presidency in May 1911 and fled to France. A provisional government under the
liberal reformer Francisco I. Madero was installed but failed to maintain the support of radical
peasants led by Emiliano Zapata, who was conducting a rural insurgency in southern Mexico.
Amid general unrest, a counterrevolutionary government under Victoriano Huerta assumed
power in February 1913. Huerta’s authority was undermined when U.S. Marines occupied
Veracruz in response to a minor incident. Following Huerta’s resignation in July 1914, fighting
continued among rival bands loosely allied with Venustiano Carranza and Francisco “Pancho”
Villa. U.S. support for Carranza prompted Villa to retaliate by raiding several U.S. border towns.
In response, the United States dispatched troops under General John J. Pershing on an
unsuccessful expedition into northern Mexico to either kill or capture Villa. Carranza negotiated
a cease-fire among several of the warring Mexican factions in December 1916 and restored order
to most of the country by accepting the radical constitution of 1917. Rural violence continued in
the south, however, until the assassination of Zapata by Carranza’s forces in November 1920.
The Mexican Revolution exacted a heavy human and economic toll; more than 1 million deaths
were attributed to the violence.

Consolidation of the Revolution
From the 1920s through the 1940s, a series of strong central
governments led by former generals of the revolutionary armies governed Mexico. Most
Mexican presidents complied with the constitutional provision mandating a single six-year term
(sexenio) with no re-election. During the late 1920s, President Plutarco Elías Calles established
many of the institutions that would define the Mexican political system throughout the twentieth
century. This system was based on an authoritarian state controlled by a hegemonic
“revolutionary” party headed by a powerful president, economic nationalism, limited land
collectivization, military subordination to civilian authority, anticlericalism, and the peaceful
resolution of social conflict through corporatist representation of group interests. Tactics such as
extensive use of state patronage, manipulation of electoral laws and electoral fraud, government
propaganda and restrictions on the press, and intimidation of the opposition helped ensure the
decades-long domination of government at all levels by the Institutional Revolutionary Party
(Partido Revolucionario Institucional—PRI). Through their top-down control of the PRI,
presidents acquired the power to handpick their successors, decree laws, and amend the
constitution virtually at will.

The ideology of the revolutionary regime took a leftward turn during the sexenio of Lázaro
Cárdenas (1934–40). Cárdenas nationalized Mexico’s oil industry and vastly expanded the
acreage of nontransferable collectivized farms (ejidos) set aside for peasant communities. During
World War II and the early years of the Cold War, the governments of Miguel Avila Camacho
(1940–46) and Miguel Alemán Valdés (1946–52) repaired strained relations with the United
States and returned to more conservative policies. In the postwar years, Mexico pursued an
economic development strategy of “stabilizing development” that relied on heavy public-sector
investment to modernize the national economy. Concurrently, Mexican governments followed
conservative policies on interest and exchange rates that helped maintain low rates of inflation
and attracted external capital to support industrialization. This dual strategy helped maintain
steady economic growth and low rates of inflation through the 1960s.

Crisis and Recovery
During the presidencies of Luis Echeverría (1970–76) and José López
Portilllo (1976–82), the public sector grew dramatically, and state-owned enterprises became a
mainstay of the national economy. Massive government spending was sustained in part by
revenues from the export of newly discovered offshore oil deposits. By the late 1970s, oil and
petrochemicals had become the economy’s most dynamic sectors. However, the windfall from
high world demand for oil would be temporary. In mid-1981, Mexico was beset by falling oil
prices, higher world interest rates, rising inflation, a chronically overvalued peso, and a
deteriorating balance of payments that spurred massive capital flight. In August 1982, the
Mexican government defaulted on scheduled debt repayments—an event that heralded a
regionwide debt crisis. President López Portillo responded to the crisis by nationalizing the
banking industry, further undermining investor confidence. His successor, Miguel de la Madrid
Hurtado (1982–88), implemented economic austerity measures that laid the groundwork for
economic recovery. In September 1985, the country suffered another blow when two major
earthquakes struck central Mexico. Between 5,000 and 10,000 people are believed to have died
and 300,000 left homeless in the worst natural disaster in Mexico’s modern history. Many
victims lost their lives in modern high-rise buildings constructed in violation of safety codes. The
high death toll and the government’s inadequate response to the disaster further undermined
public confidence in the PRI-dominated political system.

In the run-up to the 1988 presidential and congressional elections, a splinter faction of left-wing
former PRI members opposed to market reforms rallied behind the independent presidential
candidacy of Cuahtemoc Cárdenas. In the first competitive presidential election in decades, the
PRI candidate, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was declared the winner with a bare majority of the
vote. Numerous irregularities in the vote tally, including an unexplained shutdown of the
electoral commission’s computer system, led to widespread charges of fraud. Overcoming a
weak mandate and strong opposition from organized labor, President Salinas undertook a
sweeping liberalization of the economy. Reforms included the privatization of hundreds of state-owned enterprises, liberalization of foreign investment laws, deregulation of the financial
services sector, and across-the-board reductions in tariffs and nontariff trade barriers. Economic
liberalization culminated in the negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) with Canada and the United States in 1992. Salinas’s reforms were overshadowed by
subsequent revelations of corruption within the top echelons of the PRI, as well as by the
unexpected emergence of a rural insurgency in the southern state of Chiapas.

Despite the assassination of the original PRI candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio, the presidential
election proceeded as scheduled in the fall of 1994. The replacement PRI candidate, Ernesto
Zedillo Ponce de León, managed to stave off a serious challenge from the center-right National
Action Party (Partido de Acción Nacional—PAN) to win the presidency.

Transition to Democracy
During the mid-1990s, an economic crisis stemming from an
unsustainable current account deficit and mismanagement of the government bond market
plunged Mexico into a severe recession. President Zedillo spent much of his sexenio restoring
macroeconomic balance and responding to demands for greater accountability and transparency
of public institutions. Zedillo also had to contend with the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, which
highlighted the poverty and marginalization that characterized many of Mexico’s indigenous
communities. In the political realm, the Zedillo administration advanced electoral system
reforms that leveled the playing field for opposition parties and set the stage for a genuine
transition to democracy. The July 1997 midterm elections left the PRI with a minority of seats in
the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of Congress), expanded opposition control of state
governorships, and gave the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la
Revolución Democrática—PRD) control of Mexico City’s government.

The opposition’s momentum carried over into the September 2000 general elections. The PAN
candidate, Vicente Fox Quesada, won the historic presidential race, becoming the first opposition
head of state since the consolidation of the revolution. President Fox promised a deepening of
Mexico’s economic and political reforms, declared “war” on organized crime, and planned to
negotiate an immigrant “guest worker” program with the United States. Despite strong public
support early in its term, the Fox administration was weakened by the PAN’s loss of
congressional seats during the 2003 midterm elections and the government’s failure to craft a
legislative coalition in support of its reform agenda. By the end of his term in 2006, much of
President Fox’s structural reform program remained unfulfilled.

On July 2, 2006, Mexico held general elections for president, all seats in Congress, and several
state governorships. The presidential race was closely contested between the PAN candidate,
former Fox administration energy minister Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, and the PRD candidate,
populist former mayor of Mexico City Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The PRI candidate,
former Tabasco governor Roberto Madrazo Pintado, trailed in the race, as voters appeared wary
of returning the PRI to the presidency. Opinion polls indicated that the election was largely a
referendum on Mexico’s two decades of market-oriented economic reforms. Calderón promised
to continue the reform agenda by promoting greater foreign investment and increasing the
competitiveness of Mexico’s economy through structural reforms of the pension and labor laws.
He also pledged to continue the government’s fight against the drug cartels and to improve
public safety. By contrast, López Obrador vowed to focus on Mexico’s domestic problems, such
as poverty and social inequality, and to halt so-called “neo-liberal” reforms. He promised to
create thousands of jobs by funding massive public works projects and affirmed that he would
seek to renegotiate NAFTA in order to protect Mexican farmers from an influx of imported U.S.
corn. Further, López Obrador vowed to break up the unpopular commercial oligopolies that
emerged from the privatization of state assets during the 1990s.

Official tallies showed the results of the presidential election to be extremely close. Initial
uncertainty about the accuracy of the preliminary vote count led both of the leading candidates to
claim victory. However, subsequent official tabulations by the independent Federal Electoral
Institute (Instituto Federal Electoral—IFE) confirmed that Calderón had indeed won the election
by a slim plurality of 35.89 percent versus López Obrador’s 35.31 percent of the vote (a margin
of victory of 244,000 votes out of 41.8 million cast).

The results of the 2006 congressional races saw both the PAN and the PRD gain seats at the
expense of the formerly dominant PRI. For the first time in its history, the PRI lost its plurality of
seats in both houses of Congress, an event observers interpreted as a further sign of the party’s decline. Nonetheless, the PRI retained a sufficiently large bloc of seats to remain an influential
congressional force and was well positioned to become a coalition partner of any future Mexican
government. The PRD retained control of the powerful mayoralty of Mexico City. All three
major parties held state governorships.

During 2007, the Calderón administration made public safety and the fight against drug cartels
its highest domestic priorities. In response to escalating drug violence, the federal government
deployed 24,000 troops to various states and removed hundreds of corrupt police officials.
Mexican public opinion strongly backed Calderón’s aggressive tactics against the drug gangs.
Under Calderón’s leadership, the center-right PAN government courted the center-left PRI in an
effort to advance the president’s legislative agenda. During the 2007 legislative session,
Congress passed far-reaching fiscal and pension system reforms that had stalled during the Fox
administration.

By mid-2008 successive Mexican governments had made progress in reforming the economy
and reducing extreme poverty. However, significant disparities in wealth, high levels of crime,
and corruption persisted. The less-developed states in the south continued to lag economically
behind the more prosperous north and center, fueling illegal migration to the United States.
Mexico’s economy was also lagging behind those of other middle-income countries, such as
China, in terms of overall competitiveness. In addition to further consolidating Mexico’s
transition to democracy, the 2006 general elections presented an opportunity to overcome
executive-legislative stalemate and move toward consensus on economic and public-sector
reforms.

The Roots
of the City
History of the central region of the Mexican high plateau, the site of Mexico
City.

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Actually, there are more than five colors,

Baron de Coubertin would have loved to use them all.

Why is it, that Gay and Lesbian people still are victims of persecution, harassment, and assaults occasioning actual bodily harm or worse?
Our world would be much poorer and colder without the creativity and ingenuity of the colorful LGBT* culture.
So, get up, stand up, and don't let it happen again and again and again.

Nature made sure, that all men are able to love each other without distinction of gender. This ability empowers humans to care for and to help each other. Natures gift simply secures the survival of the species.
But in some societies this natural law has been neglected by religions, governments and other interest groups in favour for better controllable straight-laced communities.

But if you know what life is worth, You will look for yours on earth
(lyrics from the song Get Up, Stand Up)
Bob Marley

Article IAll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit
of brotherhood.

Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

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